20 Att

Issued by the Lao People's Democratic Republic five years after the communist Pathet Lao abolished the monarchy in 1975, this coin belongs to the first decimal coinage series produced under the new government. The LPDR contracted Soviet-bloc mints for much of its early coinage production, a practical arrangement reflecting both Cold War alignment and the near-total collapse of Laos's domestic administrative infrastructure following the revolution.

Aluminium was the only economically viable choice — the country was among the poorest in Southeast Asia, heavily dependent on foreign aid throughout the 1980s.